We have two couple friends who have the same names. It’s always a mess of confusion whenever I organize a catchup with “Ben and Mel” with Michelle usually assuming the opposite couple to the one we’re catching up with. If only one couple would change their names. But I digress…

Friday night we caught up with my old school friends – Ben and Mel – for a beer and feed down at the boardwalk on Eagle St pier. After living in Tassie for 3 years, they’ve moved back up to the big smoke to re-create a life in Brisbane.

We had a good night catching up and even made a brief appearance at the Victory Hotel – a pub I haven’t been too in over 5 years maybe 10. Mel was feeling a bit poorly and was driving so to make her feel better someone (I suspect Michelle) had the brilliant plan to go to Freestyle for some desert. Unfortunately the line-up there was 50 people deep. So plan B was put into effect. It was off to cold rock.

Saturday I started feeling really poorly. I finally managed to complete my collection of cold related symptoms. Yay! Another of my life goals achieved :/

We managed to sell our car that morning before we pottered around the house doing the weekly chores. Afterwards I was so exhausted I retired to bed for some sleep and to watch the finale of Lost season 5. One more season to go. w00t!

About 6pm I had to get up from my slumber and put some makeup on. Michelle and I were going to Geraldine’s 30th Birthday party – a Hollywood fancy dress theme.

Why the makeup? I tried to go as Derek Zoolander but ended up looking more like a trannie or that freak Russell Brand. No matter which way you look at I didn’t look right.

See if you can guess who Michelle went as?

Unlike Kevin McCallister I didn’t end up spending my weekend “home alone” wiring the house with all sorts of quirky contraptions to stop crooks from breaking in. What I did get up to was far less exciting.

Friday night I had a pyjama party at the Dahl’s house where we drank beer and watched Super Troopers a movie I have fond memories of from a few years back. After enjoying a home cooked big breakfast and more than enough games of flight control on the iphone I went home and spent a few hours watching more movies – W and The Prestige.

Saturday night was spent having a mum’s kfc feast – cause she deserves it – with mum (surprise) and my sister and her family before retiring back home to watch more tv and play more flight control.

I finally managed to beat my high score in flight control – I’m now at 73. It feels so good to break through the mental barrier that the 49/50 plane landing always presented.

For mum’s day we had booked in to Full Moon Hotel at Shorncliffe. We arrived at 8 to find a circus in town. Hundreds of people had the same idea and we were all lined up on the street while we waited for them to open. When we finally got seated we found that the buffet wasn’t really a buffet. We were allowed to go up once (and only once our table number was called) to what looked like a buffet but where staff served us the food. The fruit juice was watered down so much that we asked if the water had been juiced down a little. We got the shits big time and left before deciding to eat. We weren’t the only ones. We saw more than a few families leave with us. A complete balls up Full Moon. Hope your manager is held accountable.

After we left, our anger and disappointment subsided quickly and we drove along the waterfront to relax and enjoy the view. Along the way we saw another cafe open where we stopped and enjoyed a delicious breakfast without any of the rigmarole. Afterwards we enjoyed a quick play in the park with Jet and a stroll along the beach.

I met up with Ray – my father-in-law – and enjoyed a subway and a coffee for lunch and then went home to watch another movie – Frost/Nixon.

I’m thinking I can get one more movie in before the parents – I mean Michelle – gets home. Yay for lazy weekends.

In my entire lifetime I could count the number of times I’ve been camping with two fingers. Twice.

The first time was as a child at Scarborough beach and it sucked. Being trapped with your family in a small tent, while the wind howls and it pisses down with rain really does not make for a pleasant experience.

The second time was delux style up at O’Reilly’s – riding the luxury train of experience and good equipment that only the Johnsen’s can provide.

So my scorecard showed one win, one lose. It was time to decide once and for all whether camping was an activity I wanted to pursue on a regular basis.

So this weekend we tagged along with professional outdoors people – Pieter and Annalize and their son Aiden for a few days of camping at Stradbroke Island’s Cylinder Beach campsite.

I work with Pieter, a South African. Everyone knows South Africans are known for two things;

1. their atrocious cricketing skills

and

2. their inherent bush tucker man sensibilities.

I knew that with these two attributes we would take out the beach cricket tournament and we’d also be able to benefit from Pieter and Annalize knowing how to setup camp. All in all a win-win situation.

The weekend started off swimingly. We set-up camp quickly. Then a quick drive around to survey the area. We picked up some beer and wine, had lunch and then took off for a 4wd along the beach all before finishing with some body surfing and a game of badmington. That night we enjoyed a bbq and a few too many drinks. Good times.

So far it looked like another win would be added to the scorecard. That was until the next morning.

One word. Rain. Another word. Mud. Oh one more. Hungover. And then one more to finish it off. Sucky.

We tried to make the most of the moments of blue sky and had some awesome moments out in the surf but in the end the rain just kept coming and dampening our spirits (and equipment).

We were more than glad to get on the barge back to Brisbane this morning.

In the end, I have to mark off the scorecard for camping with a big loss making it near impossible to get me out camping again.

But the scorecard on hanging with great mates gets a big tick. It was awesome hanging on Stradbroke and we really appreciate all the help, planning and expertise that our saffa friends provided.